E Source Announces Top Utilities in Large Business Customer Satisfaction

E Source Study Finds Emergency and Outage Communications Represent the Greatest Opportunity for Improvement. End Quote

(1888PressRelease) August 17, 2011 - Florida Power & Light Co. (FPL), Silicon Valley Power, MidAmerican Energy, and the City of Palo Alto Utilities took top honors in the E Source Gap and Priority Benchmark 2011: A Survey of Utility Large Business Customers.

FPL earned the first-place ranking because its large business customers gave the utility an overall rating of 9.2 on a scale of 1 to 10 (where 1 = not at all satisfied and 10 = very satisfied). The utility received high scores in all categories, including satisfaction with the utility and with their account representative as well as the value provided by the utility relative to the price paid for energy. "At FPL, we strive to deliver outstanding value and reliable service to our customers. Our account manager team consistently looks for innovative ways to add value to our customers' businesses. We greatly appreciate this recognition from E Source and our customers," said John Haney, director of Customer Service Field Operations for FPL.

Silicon Valley Power ranked second. Its large business customers gave the utility an overall score of 9.0, and satisfaction with the utility was high as well. MidAmerican Energy and the City of Palo Alto Utilities tied for third place with an overall rating of 8.9. MidAmerican Energy's business customers were notably satisfied with their account representatives and recognized them for being attentive. The City of Palo Alto Utilities' results indicate that its account representatives are seen as trusted energy advisors.

"Large business customers want their utilities to proactively help them manage energy costs," explained Mike Hildebrand, director of E Source Business & Residential Market Services. "This survey helps utilities immediately take steps to improve customer satisfaction by showing them what's most important to their large business customers, and by revealing the gap between where they are now and where their customers want them to be."

The E Source Gap and Priority Benchmark 2011 is based on survey responses from more than 1,300 U.S. utility large business customers of 22 utilities. According to the 2011 survey results, reliability was named as the most important utility attribute. Working to keep energy prices down, effectively communicating during emergencies, and trust tied for second. Working to keep energy prices down is the area that needs the most improvement; scores for this issue revealed the largest gap between customer importance and utility performance.

This is the third year E Source has conducted the Gap and Priority Benchmark, which provides participating utilities with a custom report analyzing the largest gaps between what their customers perceive as important and how well the utility actually performs. For more information, please visit www.esource.com/Gap_and_Priority_Benchmark.

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